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self-conscious, studied, left to right camera pans framing one character at a time; the frequent
removal of sound from the soundtrack; the technique of editing together several identical
takes which are then screened in a consecutive sequence. One innovative scene breaks the
film's black and white scheme by depicting Gina inside the chamber of an old monastery
where, by means of mirrors, it is possible to see what is happening outside in the street; the
images of Fabrizio that she sees are in colour. The images evoke Godard's tendency to
increase the viewer's awareness of the process of watching a film, almost a film within a film
in this case, privileging a distanced, somewhat cerebral mode of engagement with Before the
Revolution.
Direct references to Godard's work are also conspicuous: Fabrizio's idiosyncratic,
clownish performance outside the monastery evokes the antics of Michel Poiccard, the
protagonist of A bout de souffle; Fabrizio and Gina s walk around Parma^s city centre evokes
that of Poiccard and Patricia, again in A bout de souffle, and also that of Angela and Emile in
Une femme est line femme; Gina's metaphysical monologues and her conversations with
Fabrizio and Cesare echo those of Nana, the protagonist of Vivre sa vie. The references in
Before the Revolution both to Godard and to the process of creating and consuming movies
has a central role in eliciting a intellectual form of engagement with the film by establishing a
tacit, cinephile complicity between director and viewer. However, some elements distinguish
Before the Revolution from Godard's work, notably certain differences in directorial
perspective and also the affective responses occasionally elicited by Bertolucci. While
Godard had a coherent and rigorous politico-cultural standpoint, Bertolucci's world view
appears more uncertain and permeated by tones of romanticism; Godard's characters are
often subversive in terms of their disposition or narrative function, while Bertolucci's
characters personify an inner fragility deriving from a sense of disorientation. This engages
viewers affectively, as does the aesthetic of films like Before the Revolution, mainly through
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